7 Ways to Get the Most from Genealogy Documents (Part 2 of 2)

In this article and last week's, we look at 7 methods to help you get the most value from genealogy documents.

Last week's article began a discussion of 7 ways to squeeze the goods out of genealogy documents. That article covers the first 3 ways. Here are the other 4.

4. Translation Tools

One of my pet peeves is people who won't even try to figure out what a foreign-language vital record has to say. I guarantee you can stare at the document for a while and spot the names and numbers. As long as the foreign language uses the same letters as your alphabet, you can find names among the other words. It's just recognizing shapes.

FamilySearch.org has resources to help you with genealogy documents in another language. Go to their Wiki, choose the country you need, and find a list of genealogical words. Pay close attention to the words for numbers, as you may find them written in longhand, not numerals. Learn the word for each month. Browse the words for relationships, like father, mother, grandparent, and so on. The help you need is there.

I spend all my time up to my eyeballs in Italian vital records. When I first started viewing them, I didn't know how they worked. But there is always a format that they follow (see 5. Templates below). The more documents you view, the easier it gets.

I keep a bookmark for FamilySearch's Latin genealogical word list. While I've gotten comfortable with Latin numbers and months, I still need a little help now and then. It's good to be able to double-check yourself.

Google Translate is one of my most-used genealogy tools. Some documents may have an extra paragraph that doesn't fit the usual format. You can type the letters you think you see and find out what it means.

If you have a typewritten foreign document, use an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tool. Clean up any obvious errors, then copy and paste the text into Google Translate. (I love to use OCR on obituaries so I can put the text right into my family tree.)

One free resource shows you the key genealogy words in another language. Another gives you a proper translation.

5. Templates

Different types of documents follow a specific pattern. That pattern can change over time, but there is a pattern. Understanding the layout of a document helps make sure that:

• you know where to look, and
• you don't overlook anything important.

For instance, each census record has a set format, and the exact questions vary from census to census. You can download blank, clean, easy-to-read forms from FamilySearch.org. Use them to make your research easier. Search for "Genealogy Research Forms" and see all that's there. These clean forms can show you exactly what information the form contains. They have blank ship manifests (which changed often), U.S. draft registration forms, Canadian and British census forms, and much more. Take advantage!

I've dissected Italian vital records in past articles. Maybe I'll create clean templates to help my fellow researchers understand what's where.

6. Safeguarding

Documents are beyond crucial to our family tree research. Anything that valuable deserves protection. Genealogy is a hobby we enjoy for years, so our findings move from computer to computer and house to house. We must take the necessary steps to safeguard our genealogy treasures. Make preservation a habit.

I work on my family tree every day. Here's my basic routine.

• Make a family tree file backup every few hours.
• At the end of the day, export a GEDCOM file and run a full backup.
• Store my final backup, GEDCOM, and a copy of the Family Tree Maker file in the cloud (OneDrive).
• Upload my GEDCOM to Geneanet.org. (This site can put your tree in front of a more international audience.)
• The next morning, sync my FTM file with my Ancestry.com tree.
• On Sunday morning, back up the week's files, including any new documents, to 2 external hard drives.

For more detail, and to figure out your own genealogy safeguarding plan, see:

• A Safety Net for Reckless Family Tree Building
• It's Time to Organize All Your Family Photos
• Quick and Easy Family Tree Backup Routine

7. Find Every Document

Isn't it great how new record collections come online all the time? When all my ancestors' Italian vital records came online on the Antenati site, it opened the floodgates. That's why my family tree has 81,601 people! And I couldn't be happier that the New York City Municipal Archives went online. Almost all my family lived there.

This year I'm filling in source citations in my family tree to make it valuable to other researchers. When I follow up on someone in the United States, I usually find more information than there was before. Now I can see their Pennsylvania birth and death records. I can download their New York City marriage record. Each new document can open the door to more relatives.

I love having a Newspapers.com subscription for obituaries and marriage announcements. These are a big help for people in my tree who were dead ends. Now I know who they married and which kids they had. And the grandchildren in the obit may be my DNA matches. The new information leads to more and more facts for my family tree.

Make it part of your research plan to revisit the dead ends in your family tree once in a while. You never know when a new document will come online and give you the answers you were missing. Keep trying to find every piece of the paper trail for each person.

---

Genealogy documents are the cornerstone of our family tree research. My grandparents had so little to tell us about their parents. And they said nothing at all about their grandparents. So many details are lost in time. (Now I'm picturing Rutger Hauer in "Bladerunner" saying, "like tears in rain".) It's documents that let us capture the forgotten tidbits of our family history. Get all you can from them and preserve it all for future generations.

7 Ways to Get the Most from Genealogy Documents (Part 1 of 2)

Don't miss out on the full value of genealogy documents. Here are 7 ways to get the most from the documents you want for your family tree.

I'm still plugging away at my source citations project. Each day I add citations for 70–100 of the Italian nationals in my family tree. Working on source citations makes it obvious how important genealogy documents are to family tree research. I have so many people in my tree whose existence would be unknown if I didn't have this one document image.

Let me share with you 7 ways you can get the most value from each genealogy document you discover.

1. File Naming and Storage

If you're downloading document images you find online (I hope you are), you must make sure you can find them again. Everyone has their own preference about document file naming. Whatever you choose to do, do it with consistency. Then you'll have no doubt where to find a particular document.

I've detailed my file-naming and folder storage system in "3 Simple Rules for Managing Your Digital Genealogy Documents". I know lots of people have separate folders for individual families. For me, that'd be impossible. My family tree has 81,500 people and thousands of families. And what happens with Grandma? Is she stored under her father's last name and excluded from the folder for her husband's last name? Do I put a copy of her censuses under both names? It makes no sense to me.

The vast majority of my document image files are vital records. I name these for the person who is the primary subject. That's the baby on a birth record, the decedent on a death record, the groom and bride on a marriage record. I name the files last-name-first so they're easy to sort and find. When I name a file for a female, she always always always goes by her maiden name. The only time this is tricky is when a widowed woman is the head of household on a census form. In those cases, I'll use both last names, as in OrsariSarracinoGiuseppa1920. This is a 1920 census record for Giuseppa Orsari, widow, and her Sarracino children.

When you're choosing a file-naming/folder-naming process to follow, think it through. Let's say you don't name your files last-name-first. If you need John Taylor's documents, how many hundreds of John files will you have to pore over to find the right one? There are Johns, John Anthonys, John Peters, John Philips…that Taylor could be anywhere.

Find a solution that works best with the way you use your genealogy documents.

With a logical filing system in place, any genealogy document is easy to find for use in your family tree research.

2. Source Citations

Why create source citations? Imagine you're searching online for a distant cousin whose family tree might help you. You find one, and their tree has tons of details that are new to you. But not one fact has a source citation.

You're left to wonder, where did they get this date? Is that her maiden name? Did he die in another country? Without source citations, you have no solid reason to believe any detail is correct.

Recently, I heard from someone through Ancestry.com. It may be the first time I've ever heard from another Sarracino descendant. (That's my grandmother's maiden name.) Unfortunately, a lack of pre-1861 records from their town means I can't find our connection. But I'm happy to share what I do know.

He found his relatives in my family tree and asked me where those names and dates came from. Right away, I added the missing source citations for everyone in his branch. I synced my Family Tree Maker file with my Ancestry tree and pointed him to it. I told him he could view the profile page for any person and see a list of citations in the center column. For any citation, he would find a clickable link to the web page where he could see the vital record for himself.

That's exactly the type of proof someone needs to believe your genealogy work is valid. Plus, there will be times when you need to return to a document online. What if the version you downloaded got lost or corrupted? Say you found out that a cousin lived in your grandparents' apartment building. You'd need to return to the census to look for the cousin on the next page. If you didn't add a citation, how easily could you return to the source?

Source citations have tremendous value. For tips on following a source citation routine, see "These Steps Make Your Family Tree Much More Valuable".

3. Digitization

I've lived at a keyboard since I bought my genuine IBM PC in 1985. Of course all my stuff is digital! I'm not one of those genealogists with binders full of paper reproductions. I can't even imagine a binder for each family. (Again, I have thousands of families.) I have a few noteworthy paper-based family tree projects, but that's it:

• How to Create a 'Book of Life' for Your Relatives
• Make Your Own 'Elder Scroll'
• 5+ Ways to Share Your Tree with Family

I have only a small number of paper vital records that are not online. My grandfather's 1992 death certificate. My great grandfather's 1969 death certificate, and so on. These documents all fit in one folder. But of course I need to have an image of these documents in my family tree and as part of my computer backup.

That's why I digitized each paper-only document to make sure I never lose it. To see how simple this routine can be, read "How to Make Your Family Tree Fireproof!"

---

Have you ever heard the phrase "Pix or it didn't happen"? When it comes to genealogy, it's "Documents or it didn't happen". Take the time to:

• follow a file-naming and file-storage routine
• prove your work by citing your sources
• safeguard your work for posterity.

More people than you will care about your family tree. Make it the best you can.

There's so much to say about genealogy documents that this article got quite long. Please come back next week and I'll wrap up the rest of the 7 Ways.

5 Traits of an Exceptional Genealogist

Turn your family tree into a valuable legacy by adopting these 5 traits.

The purpose of this blog has always been to help you be a better genealogist. That can mean:

• avoiding and fixing errors
• learning how to use important documents
• exploring new resources, and more.

This is Fortify Your Family Tree's 629th article. It's time we all strive for more than being better genealogists. Let's work to be exceptional genealogists. Your family tree is your legacy. It will continue to inform and enlighten people long after you're gone. Don't you want your legacy to be exceptional?

Certain traits are common to all exceptional genealogists. Here are 5 traits to set as your goals. An exceptional genealogist:

1. Uses Documents to Support Facts

You know Grandma's birthday because you used to celebrate it with her. But your reminiscences and family photos are not proof. To be an exceptional genealogist, your family tree needs documents.

I have a copy of Grandma's 1899 birth certificate. It supports the date our family always knew. It also includes a different middle name than Grandma claimed to have. And I have my grandparents' marriage certificate. These 2 documents are official proof, and I can cite my sources.

It can be tough to get documents for recent events, such as your close cousins' marriage dates. But for earlier generations, you need to search for the documents.

I've seen DNA matches' family trees list a bunch of grandaunts and uncles without proof. They heard their Grandpa mention these different siblings, so into the tree they go. But isn't it far better to cite the available documents for those siblings?

Following the documents, you can learn so much more about Grandpa's family. You can document the lives of the siblings who died before he was born. You can discover who his siblings married. You can document their children and create a priceless resource for their descendants.

It's the documents that make your family tree more complete, believable, and valuable. It's the documents that break through brick walls, dispel myths, and answer questions. Find out how to use them to "Solve Genealogy Mysteries Step-by-Step".

2. Doesn't Accept Hints without Doing the Research

My maternal grandfather had a common Italian last name—Leone. A skilled genealogist wouldn't assume that my Leone family is part of their Leone family. They'd do the research and see that my Leones came from a different part of Italy than their Leones.

But I've seen people pull my grandfather and his immediate family into their family tree. That means they accepted a hint without bothering to do a lick of research. My grandfather's family was in one little town for centuries—far from their town. I have the documents to prove that. All they have is a shaky leaf.

A hint is a clue, not a fact! Hints can be very helpful when they lead you to documents you can examine. But you must examine them! Compare the document's facts to what you've recorded in your family tree. Think of a hint as someone asking you, "Is this the one?" as they offer you a piece of the jigsaw puzzle you're putting together. Of course you're going to examine that piece to see if it fits. You wouldn't smash it into place because of a hint.

The next time you see an enticing hint, think about these "3 Ways to Tell If That Hint is No Good".

3. Presents Information with Consistency

When I worked for an international company, emailing people outside the U.S., one thing jumped out at me. Dates. People in different countries write dates in different ways. If I say that a project's deadline is 12/10/2024, an American will read that as December 10th. But my British colleagues will read it as October 12th.

That's why I adopted a more universal style, and I use it throughout my family tree. December 10, 2024 becomes 10 Dec 2024. Since the year has 4 digits, the 10 is clearly the day of the month. The 3-letter month varies among languages, yet it isn't hard to understand.

Does your family tree use a consistent date format? Can your dates be misunderstood by your distant cousins in Europe and elsewhere?

An exceptional genealogist records dates and other facts consistently. They leave no room for misinterpretation. For examples of other facts, see "Consistency Makes Your Family Tree More Professional".

4. Cites their Sources

Have you ever found an intriguing DNA match and taken a look at their family tree? If that tree has no source citations, are you going to accept it all as fact? I hope not.

But if you find a family tree and the source citations link to document images, you can see the facts for yourself.

I've built a massive family tree based on Italian vital records available online. And I committed the cardinal sin of skipping most source citations. In my defense, I knew I could go back and create the citations, and I was more eager to build out extended branches. That was wrong of me and very unprofessional.

Now I'm concentrating on filling in those source citations. I don't know when I'll finish, but I will keep working at it. It can become tedious when you're fixing a huge backlog of omissions, so I do mix things up sometimes. I may take a break to explore my 3rd great grandmother's town. But if I add a single new person to my family tree, I absolutely add the source citation at the same time. I've learned my lesson.

If you've been skipping the citations, here's a great way to make the task less daunting. See "Step-by-Step Source Citations for Your Family Tree".

5. Doesn't Believe Family Lore without Proof

If you're lucky, your elders passed down stories about your family history. The problem is, those stories can be wrong. Some stories may be exaggerations. Some may be misunderstandings. Some may be cover stories hiding the truth.

When I first started my family tree, I learned a family connection to a famous historical figure was a lie. Despite hearing this story from the woman who looked ashamed to be the man's niece, it was 100% untrue. To find out how I debunked a longtime family myth, see "Where Did I Find This?"

---

What can you do right now to become an exceptional genealogist?

• Try to find documents for the unsupported facts in your family tree.
• Re-examine any person or fact you accepted from a hint or a hunch without doing your own research.
• Bring consistency to the way you record names, dates, addresses, and more in your family tree.
• Fill in those missing source citations!
• Set out to prove or debunk family stories.

Take pride in your work. You're creating a high-quality, high-value family tree because you are an exceptional genealogist.

How to Find What's Missing from Your Family Tree

One morning I had the idea of "finishing" one family unit in my tree at a time. Finishing them means locating and adding every document I know is missing. I thought I'd take a look at the hints on Ancestry.com and compare them to what my Document Tracker says I'm missing.

The first family in my alphabetical Document Tracker is the Abbate family. I found the 1898 marriage certificate for Francesco and Mary Abbate I'd been missing. It gave me their parents' names and their Manhattan addresses. I added the certificate image and its source citation to all the associated facts. I added "1898 (cert.)" to the marriage column of my Document Tracker for both Francesco and Mary. That tells me I have the certificate image in my family tree.

But Francesco Abbate is the father-in-law of the 1st cousin once removed of the wife of my 1st cousin! No offense to my 1st cousin's lovely wife, but I'd like to spend this effort a little closer to home.

I wondered how many families were in my enormous family tree. When I opened my latest GEDCOM file in Family Tree Analyzer, it said I have:

• 46,600 individuals
• 15,472 families
• 9,587 blood relations

Woof! Where do I start? The answer has to be with my parents. I know I downloaded their 1950 censuses, but I haven't added them to my tree yet. What else can I find for them before moving on to their parents?

If you focus on one document-type at a time, you'll be more efficient and consistent in how you capture facts for your family tree.

You may be wondering why on earth I haven't added their 1950 censuses to my family tree. When they released the census, but Ancestry hadn't yet indexed it, I downloaded 44 images. Then I held them until I could use Ancestry's source citation and link. I haven't gotten back to it yet, but the images are ready and waiting for me.

A Generation-at-a-Time Process

So let's start. Look at your parents. What documents and records can you still find that belong in your family tree?

• Do you have every census they appear in?
• Do you have birth, marriage, and death records?
• Do you have yearbooks and directories?
• Do you have key photos and mementos, such as a wedding invitation?

I tracked down my dad's 1950 census on Ancestry. I added a correction to the family's last name. It was off by one letter. Now I have the source citation I need for the document image I saved months ago. Dad was on line 2 of his census page, meaning they asked him extra questions at the bottom of the page. I learned that he was in his first year of college in 1950, and he was not working while he studied.

I love how specific this census is. It says his family lived at 562 Morris Avenue. But it also says they're on the 4th floor (which I knew) in apartment 16 (which I didn't know). I'm adding "4th floor, apartment 16" to the description line of the 1950 residence fact for my dad and his family.

Now my dad's 4-person family has their 1950 census images and source citation. I added the 1950 census to my Document Tracker for all 4 people.

Once you've finished your father, how will you proceed? You can stay in that generation and finish gathering your mother's documents. Then go up a generation, gathering everything for each of your grandparents. Will you spread out to gather documents for the siblings of each generation? How soon will this process spiral out of control? My mind is reeling already.

A More Manageable Process

Instead of plodding through every level of my family, one-by-one, I have another idea. What got me started on this whole project was a random hint featured on my Ancestry homepage. It was the immigration record for someone in my family tree.

I opened my Document Tracker with the idea of locating all my immigration records. That's what brought me to Francesco Abbate.

An up-to-date document tracker is your best friend when trying to "finish" a family unit in your family tree.

What if we pick one type of document and concentrate on nothing else? Don't you think that will be productive? When I look at the list of all my hints on Ancestry, there's a unique category for the 1950 census. I can click that to see only those hints and work my way through them.

You can sort this list of hints by last name or first name, or choose to see the most recent. If you sort by last name, you'll see families grouped together. That makes the most sense because you're going to pick off whole families at a time.

As you work your way down the list, be sure to add your new finds to your Document Tracker. As you do so, take a look in your tree at each person you're adding. Make note of which other documents you have for them, and which you're missing.

When you've finished locating one type of document, like the 1950 census, move on to another type. You can tackle:

• other census years
• immigration records
• naturalization papers
• vital records, and more.

Through repetition, you'll get better at creating source citations. You'll make a habit of adding new finds to your Document Tracker.

If you've been busy with a brick wall for a while, this project will make you feel great about your amazing progress.

Family Tree Research Takes Time to Bear Fruit

Twenty years ago I knew absolutely nothing about my great grandmother in Ohio. I met her only once when I was five years old.

When I was about to leave for my 2003 honeymoon in Italy, my aunt mentioned my great grandmother's last name. Caruso. I never knew what it was before that moment.

After visiting Italy, I wanted to know more and more about my ancestors. Great grandma Caruso was one of my biggest mysteries. Relatives couldn't agree on her first name. A cousin who grew up with great grandma Caruso remembered her saying she was from "Pisqua Lamazza." Well, that isn't a town. But it was a clue.

Maria Rosa was barely a memory for me. Now I have so much great information!

Here are all the puzzle pieces that had to come together for me to trace great grandma Caruso's past. Once I cracked her mystery, I was able to climb five generations up her family tree.

Immigration Record

I had to figure out what town she came from that sounded like "Pisqua Lamazza." I tried a simple trick that I've used over and over again. I searched Ancestry for anyone named Caruso coming to New York Harbor in the early 1900s. In the search results, I paid attention only to each person's hometown.

And then I saw it. Pescolamazza. That was it! I could imagine someone with a heavy accent pronouncing that town the way great grandma Caruso did. Now that I had the name of her hometown, I went to Google Maps. But Pescolamazza doesn't exist. A separate Google search had the answer. The town of Pescolamazza had changed its name to Pesco Sannita in 1947.

To my delight, Pesco Sannita is very close to my ancestral hometown of Colle Sannita. And all my other ancestral hometowns.

Knowing the town name, I found a 1906 ship manifest showing the arrival of Maria Rosa Caruso in America. The only problem was, it said she was married.

For years I wasn't sure this was my great grandmother on the ship manifest. Then I saw the truth was hiding in plain sight.

Town Hall Record

Based on her age written on the July 1906 ship manifest, Maria Rosa Caruso was born in 1881 in today's Pesco Sannita. An Italian friend offered to go to the town hall to request Maria Rosa's 1881 birth record for me.

The town clerk said Maria Rosa wasn't born there. He suggested she might be from another town. How disappointing!

Marriage Record

In 2009 I visited the New York State Archives. I found out my great grandparents married on 29 November 1906 in Steuben County. I had the certificate number, so I sent away for the document.

I realized that Maria Rosa married my great grandfather four months after arriving in America. Four months!

Her marriage certificate managed to get both of her parents' names wrong. They listed Maria Rosa Caruso's father as Francesco deBenevento. This was obviously a misunderstanding. He was Francesco Caruso from the province of Benevento. For her mother, it said only Maria Luigia. No last name.

But now I had a document saying she was 26 years old in late 1906. So she wasn't born in 1881. She was born in 1880. The Pesco Sannita town clerk would have checked the index of the book of 1881 births. He didn't look beyond the year we requested.

They're great to have, but your immigrant ancestor's new-world documents often have bad information.

Another Cousin

It's so important to put your family tree online. Another cousin found me and shared a lot of information about the Caruso family. He'd been to Pesco Sannita a few times. Too bad he didn't find me sooner.

Thanks to him, I learned the names of all the Caruso brothers. They were working for the railroad before sending for their only sister. They must have worked with my great grandfather and arranged for him to marry their sister. That's why my great grandparents married so quickly.

I still wondered if the 1906 ship manifest was the right one. It said she was already married. When I took a closer look at it, I could see a very light "S" written right over the "m" for married. A few lines above her, someone had lightly written "single" over the "m" for married. Now, at last, I knew I'd really found her.

Vital Records

I'd spent a few years viewing microfilmed Italian records at a Family History Center. I was concentrating on another branch of the family. It would take many more years before I'd get around to Pesco Sannita.

That all changed in 2017. I learned the Italian government was putting digitized vital records online for free. The Antenati website gave me access to tons of records from Pesco Sannita.

My first stop was the 1880 birth records. Not only did I find Maria Rosa's birth record—with her parents' full and proper names—I discovered she was a twin! Sadly, the second-born twin, Luca, was stillborn.

To this day, I'm continuing to explore the Pesco Sannita vital records to grow Maria Rosa's family. The early drip, drip, drip of clues about my great grandmother is now a full-on stream of facts.

All kinds of obstacles may keep you from climbing to that next generation in your family tree. Solving the mystery of a single ancestor can take:

• a bunch of different documents
• some imagination, and
• access to just the right records.

Gather every shred of evidence you can, and if that isn't enough, gather more!

How to Make the Best of the New Antenati Website

UPDATED ON 29 MAY 2024. By now, everyone should be comfortable with the November 2021 redesign of the Italian Portale Antenati—the ancestors portal. The site's managers have been making changes behind the scenes, and the website is working better than ever.

No one should still be upset about the redesign of Antenati.

Why They Changed the Website

There was a time when the Antenati site went down almost every day. Since the change, only once did I find the site unavailable. That's a huge improvement.

The redesign makes site maintenance easier for their team—no doubt. It's a huge website! The homepage on 29 May 2024 says its contains:

• 85 provincial state archives
• 1,725,481 register books
• 139,159,506 images.

As a 25-year website maintenance veteran, I get why the Antenati team wants to make their lives easier. Now let's make your life easier.

Adapting to the Changes

Creating Source Citations. Every Antenati document in my family tree had a source citation that became obsolete with the change. However, the old image URL you saved before November 2021 now redirects you to the same image at its new URL. This is fantastic, and I believe it's because we requested it so loudly.

Here's one of my old-style source citations:

From the Benevento State Archives: http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/v/Archivio+di+Stato+di+Benevento/Stato+civile+della+restaurazione/Baselice/Morti/1856/199/007850708_01745.jpg.html

You can see from the old URL itself that the document is from Benevento, from the town of Baselice, and from the death records for 1856.

Your new Antenati documents need a new style of source citation. Here's my template.

My new Antenati source citation format is this:

From the xxx State Archives, YEAR TYPE, TOWN, document xx, image xx of xx at book url; image URL

I keep that text (and so much more) in my Notebook.txt file that's always open on my computer.

Using the same image as an example, I'd change:

• "xxx State Archives" to "Benevento State Archives"
• "YEAR TYPE, TOWN" to "1856 nati, Baselice"
• "document xx, image xx of xx" to "document 65, image 35 of 41"
• "book url" to "https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12657/an_ua757415/wWK9rlj"
• "image URL" to "https://iiif-antenati.san.beniculturali.it/iiif/2/wWK9rlj/full/full/0/default.jpg" (Find out how to get the individual image URL below.)

Altogether, the new source citation is:

From the Benevento State Archives, 1856 nati, Baselice, document 65, image 35 of 41 at https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12657/an_ua757415/wWK9rlj; https://iiif-antenati.san.beniculturali.it/iiif/2/wWK9rlj/full/full/0/default.jpg

This format gives you all the information you need to go see the document for yourself, online or in person. It includes the province, town, and specific book; the URL of the register book; and the URL of the high-resolution image of the document.

Navigating Smartly. Getting to the register book you want is easier than it was before the redesign. We used to click a province, click a time period, click our town, click a document type, and click a year. That got you to the right collection of images.

Now I start at the homepage and enter the name of the town I want. Then I can narrow down the results. Maybe I want only birth records. I can scroll down the town's results page and click Nati below the Tipologia heading. Then I can either scroll through the years or click Espandi below the Anno heading, and choose my year.

Note: I always view the site in Italian. If you haven't figured out that Anno means year and Nati means birth, you need to get grounded. The FamilySearch wiki is a great resource for learning Italian genealogy words. Memorize a few words and make things much easier.

Now that you're looking at the register you want, the best thing to do is look for the index pages. To do this, you need to use the thumbnail view menu. Here's how:

• Looking at your register book, click what's meant to be a page view icon on the right (see #1 in the image below) and choose "Right" to display thumbnails on the right or "Fondo" to display the thumbnails across the bottom. (You can even choose "Galleria" in that same menu to see nothing but thumbnails, which I realized today.)
  
• Scroll through the thumbnails and click any one to jump to that image.

Once you know what and where to click, the new Antenati site is easy to master.

Zooming in to Read. The index and documents will be too small to read. To zoom in on any image, simply click the image! Click it again to zoom in further. I didn't realize this until 1 April 2022 when they released the 1950 U.S. Census on the NARA website. They use an almost identical image viewer, and I found you can simply click the image to zoom in.

Getting the High-Resolution Document Image. They must not want us to find and download the high-resolution images like we used to. Why else would they make it so tough to get to them?

While it is an inconvenience, I've turned this process into a habit. Now it's second nature for me to get the high-resolution document image I want.

Getting the vital record you need from the new Antenati website takes a few more clicks. Don't worry! It'll become routine after a few tries.

Start by going to the page you want within any register book. As you click from page to page, you should notice that the last section of the URL (after the last slash) in the address bar of your web browser changes with each page. Copy that last section and paste it into this URL that you will keep in a safe place, replacing only the word TARGET:

https://iiif-antenati.san.beniculturali.it/iiif/2/TARGET/full/full/0/default.jpg

For example, I'm looking at a document and the URL ends in 5K6QgbP. If I paste that into my template URL, replacing the word TARGET, I get https://iiif-antenati.san.beniculturali.it/iiif/2/5K6QgbP/full/full/0/default.jpg. If you click that link you'll see the document all by itself. You can click the image once to enlarge it. And you can right-click and save that wonderful high-resolution image to your computer.

I like to leave all the browser tabs open until I complete my source citation. Copy the register book URL, the image URL, and the page number in the register.

Adapting and thriving. It's easy enough once you get used to it, and we're still getting a free resource that's intensely valuable. Remember:

• Gather source citation details as you go.
• Use the hidden thumbnail page navigator to get around.
• Zoom in by clicking the image once or twice.
• Paste the end of the URL into your template URL and save that high-resolution image.

The old website was no picnic. Make this one work for you!

The reason I decided to update this article on 29 May 2024 is the name-search feature. When you go to the Antenati site, the homepage lets you search by town (Località) or by name and town (Nome, Cognome, Località). Only recently have I had decent success in searching by name. It can be a tremendous time-saver—especially when you're searching for someone in a large city.

When you're looking at either a list of available register books for a town, or at an individual register book, see if there's a page icon. A page icon is a small graphic that looks like a printed page with its corner folded down. When you're looking at a list of available registers, the words Atti collegati are beside the icon. When you're looking at a register, the words Nominativi collegati are beside the icon.

These words and the page icon tell you this register is searchable by name! Take advantage of that. The search results list may be long, so pay attention to the details of each item in the list.

Personally, I'm eternally grateful to everyone responsible for the Antenati website. It is a godsend to every genealogist with Italian ancestry.

Be sure to also read How to Use the Online Italian Genealogy Archives.

And speaking of Italian vital records:

• How to Read an Italian Birth Record
• How to Read an Italian Death Record
• How to Read Italian Marriage Records

Build a Rock-Solid Family Tree Foundation

A family tree needs a well-made foundation. But unlike other construction projects, your tree needs a solid base at the top.

With a solid foundation, you can add distant relatives like ornaments on a Christmas tree. Imagine if you knew the names of all your 6th great grandparents. Plus all their siblings. And everyone's spouses. Then you could attach younger generations to the right branch as you discover them.

That's what I'm doing with my pet project. I'm piecing together everyone from my grandfather's hometown of Colle Sannita, Italy. I'm lucky. All my ancestors came from a handful of neighboring towns where they lived for centuries. The towns were a bit isolated, so the number of intermarriages is astonishing.

Researching the earliest birth records can take you back several generations.

A Foundational Database

In 2017 I downloaded the town's vital records from the Italian website, Antenati. I have more than 38,000 document images arranged in separate folders. There's a unique birth, marriage, and death folder for each year. The years range from 1809–1942 with several gaps. It's a total of 225 folders. (Note that civil record keeping began in 1809 in most Italian towns.)

Next, I made the files easy to use. I renamed each one to include the name(s) of the document's subject(s). Along the way, I realized it'd be helpful to include the name of the subject's father in the file name.

For instance, "007853904_01008 Damiano d'Emilia di Teofilo.jpg" is more useful than "007853904_01008 Damiano d'Emilia.jpg." Why? Because now I can search my computer for every child born to Teofilo d'Emilia.

Two Reasons for This Naming Convention

Reason #1: Keeping the number (007853904_01008) in the file name makes it easy to cite the image's URL. To do this, I keep a special text file in each of the 225 folders. The file contains a template for each image's URL. The template for the folder of 1852 death records says this:

http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/v/Archivio+di+Stato+di+Benevento/Stato+civile+della+restaurazione/Colleoggi+Colle+Sannita/Morti/1852/636/007853904_00000.jpg.html (01006-01067)

To reconstruct the URL for this exact file, I change the 00000 in the template URL to 01008. Why keep the whole number when I need only the last 5 digits? Because the marriage files, and some other records, come from more than one location. There can be different sets of numbers within a year. The template for 1852 marriages looks like this:

http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/v/Archivio+di+Stato+di+Benevento/Stato+civile+della+restaurazione/Colleoggi+Colle+Sannita/Matrimoni+pubblicazioni/1852/636/007853904_00000.jpg.html (01086-01147) [These are the marriage banns.]

http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/v/Archivio+di+Stato+di+Benevento/Stato+civile+della+restaurazione/Colleoggi+Colle+Sannita/Matrimoni+processetti/1852/636/007853904_00000.jpg.html (01148-01502) [These are the birth and death records required for the marriage.]

http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/v/Archivio+di+Stato+di+Benevento/Stato+civile+della+restaurazione/Colleoggi+Colle+Sannita/Matrimoni/1852/636/007853904_00000.jpg.html (01503-01536) [These are the marriage documents, often with a separate notation for civil and church wedding.]

The beginning of the file number (i.e., 007853904) plus the last 5 digits helps form the exact URL.

Reason #2: I use the Italian word "di" before the father's name in each file name (i.e., Damiano d'Emilia di Teofilo, or Maria Rosa Pilla di Nicola). "Di" means of, and it's a common way to show that someone is the son or daughter of a particular man. Italian records may use the word "fu" (meaning late or deceased). But to simplify my record searching, I use "di" in the file name even if the father is dead.

Understanding the Antenati URL structure helps you write the source citation.

Placing the Babies

The renamed vital records are easy to search on my computer. I use a Windows program called Everything, and it's a godsend. My plan is to fit as many babies from the town as possible into my published family tree. What an awesome resource my tree will be for anyone with Colle Sannita ancestry.

Here's the process:

1. View the document to find the baby's name, the father's name and age, and the mother's name and age. (Ages are not always included, but you can estimate.)
2. Check Family Tree Maker to see if the baby is already in there. If so, prepare the image (crop, enhance, add meta data) and add it to their profile with a source citation for each fact.
3. If the baby is not in the family tree, look for the father and mother. See if they're in the tree as husband and wife. If so, add this baby and the document.
4. If the baby and parents are not in the tree, search for:
   • The marriage of the grown-up baby. If there's a place for their spouse in the family tree, there's now a connection to this baby and their document.
   • The death of the mother or father. Their death records should include their parents' names. Check if they are already in the family tree.
   • The remarriage of one of the widowed parents. Does their new spouse fit into the tree?
   • Siblings for the original baby. One of them may have married someone who's already in the family tree.

That last idea was a game-changer. I revisited a dozen 1809 babies that I couldn't place in my family tree on the first try. Once I tracked down their siblings, I found the connection I needed and worked the whole family into my tree.

Reaching Higher Than the Foundation

The earliest documented babies have parents born around the 1780s or earlier. If I find their death records, I learn the names of their parents, born around the 1750s or earlier. And if I'm lucky enough to find that generation's parents' names, I can check my ultimate reference book. My friend from Colle Sannita, Dr. Fabio Paolucci, published a book detailing every family in Colle Sannita in the year 1742. When I connect someone from the book to my family tree, I can wind up with ancestors born in the 1600s!

If you have Italian ancestors, see if a similar book is available for your town. You won't regret the investment. Use the search box on https://abenapoli.it to look for your ancestral hometown. The book I bought is called "Colle Sannita nel 1742" ("nel" means in the). The book for another of my towns is called "Apice nel 1753." A search for "nel 17" brings up a long list of books detailing the residents of many towns in the 1700s.

This rock-solid foundation will help me place more and more townspeople in my family tree.

I connected all the 1809 babies, and I've already got 31,000+ people in my family tree. Thank goodness I retired last month, because this obsession is an absolute blast!

Don't Believe Everything Your Ancestors Told You

When someone asks me to research their family tree, I pick out the key facts from what they've told me, and go to the available documents.

As an Italian-American, I know our ancestors "Americanized" their names to fit in. And I know many of us heard our ancestors came from Naples. It's my job as an Italian ancestry researcher to see past the changed names and look beyond Naples.

It was common for our immigrant ancestors to never speak of the old country. If your elders didn't mention their hometown by name, you likely don't know where they were born.

Genealogy documents hold the clues you need. Your ancestor's immigration record may name their hometown. If not, you can search for naturalization records. Also check World War I and II draft registration cards. While one of these may tell you only the country of birth, the other may have the exact town name.

I can plot ALL my ancestors on a thin strip of a souvenir map from Italy. It took a bunch of documents to make this happen.

But Where, Exactly?

My Sarracino and Saviano ancestors are a perfect example of using documents. My grandmother and her sister told me their family came from two places: Pastene and Avellino. When I began to research, those two specific places became a problem.

Looking at Google Maps, I found Pastena, which is what I thought I heard. And there was a big Sarracino family from the town. After adding the wrong family to my tree, I learned they were not my family. And when I looked for Avellino on the map, I found it was both a city and a province. Imagine if you knew your family was from New York, but you didn't know if that meant the city or the state. Big difference!

It was the documents that set things straight. I found the 1899 ship manifest for my Sarracino and Saviano great grandparents. The hometown written on the manifest was Sant'Angelo a Cupolo. Checking the map again, I found a hamlet within Sant'Angelo a Cupolo called Pastene. Pastena/Pastene—a one-letter difference. The two places are in different provinces, which makes a world of difference. They store the vital records for each province separately. And they're filed separately online.

Having solved the Pastene mystery, I didn't know where Avellino came into play. If both my great grandparents were from Pastene, who came from Avellino?

Another genealogy document to the rescue! My great granduncle's World War II draft registration card had the answer. They misspelled the town, but the map made it clear. He was born in Tufo, a small town in the province of Avellino.

I followed the document trail in Tufo and found a surprise. My 2nd great grandmother Colomba wasn't from Tufo. She was from the neighboring town of Santa Paolina. She and her father's ancestors all came from Santa Paolina. One more document, a death record for Colomba's mother, held another surprise. My 3rd great grandmother was from Apice, a town in the Benevento province.

Think about that for a moment. The oral history said my family was from Pastena and Avellino. The documents showed me this part of my family actually came from:

• Pastene (part of Sant'Angelo a Cupolo in Benevento)
• Santa Paolina in Avellino
• Apice in Benevento.

You've got to follow the documents.

Grandma didn't lie. But your family's word-of-mouth history is a lot like a game of "telephone".

Two Proud Grandpas and One Strong Accent

Two of my ancestral hometowns were always a given. My two immigrant grandfathers were proud to say where they were born. I've known this all my life: one was from Baselice and the other was from Colle Sannita, both in Benevento.

There was only one more hometown I needed to identify. My Caruso great grandmother met my great grandfather in upstate New York. I didn't know where she was born. I connected with my Dad's first cousin June who grew up with her grandmother. She said my great grandmother was also proud of her hometown. With my great grandmother's Italian accent, the hometown sounded like Pisqualamazza.

First I checked the map. Pisqualamazza is not a town. Then I had an idea. I checked Ancestry.com for immigrants named Caruso. Yes, that's a common name. But I was searching for a hometown that looked something like Pisqualamazza.

It hit me like a thunderbolt. I found a Caruso from the town of Pescolamazza. I can totally understand how Pesco could sound like Pisqua. There was only one problem. Pescolamazza also isn't on the map.

A regular Google search for Pescolamazza explained it all. The name of the town evolved over the centuries:

• Pesclum
• Pesco
• Piesco
• Lo Pesco
• Lo Pesco de la Macza
• Pescolamazza
• and in 1947: Pesco Sannita

At last I found my great grandmother's hometown: Pesco Sannita, also in Benevento.

You can't find your immigrant ancestor's birth record if you don't know their town. Use the documents you can find to pin down the town of birth. Identifying the towns and accessing their vital records is why my family tree has 30,000 people.

So, keep the oral history in mind, but follow the documents!